North Dakota Mini-Ocean

[Goodwin9]

Sorry to hear about the losses, but I'm glad your hanging in there! You've put so much time and effort to give up now. Keep us posted as things progress..

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

 

[jnarowe]

That doesn't look too bad! Are you having an issue with cloudy water, or is that just the camera?

 

[matt & pam]

What type of salt are you using, and what is your replacement rate?

 

[robot2222]

awesome , my favorite tank..............

 

[sltloser]

Tank is looking good man, you need to put a shot of the the fuge, and cheto on to show how dense and large it's gotten. He uses reef salt by instant ocean. I'm guessing u mean freshwater replacement? I think it's about twelve gallons a day, give or take a few.

 

[Bax]

Looks great!
It must take a long time for a tank so big to really mature and fill up with corals. What you have established and growing looks terrific! It will be awesome when you get another another six months or so under your belt and all those frags are in place and growing!

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Jon - I just noticed that too...I was shooting pictures quick between football games and didn't pay too much attention to details. I went down to look at the tank again and the water is not cloudy or hazey as it looks in the picture. I did notice the lens was a little dirty, so I got some lens cleaner and that should do the trick.

Matt - I am using a combo of the D&D salt and Reef Crystals. I try and do a 110 gallon change every 6 weeks. The evaporation rate is around 15 gallons and I don't do anything special to compensate for that.

Brady - Yeah, I will try to shoot some photos of the chaeto...Its thick and has taken over the right sump. There are some weird creatures that are inhabiting back there too...

Bax - It has taken quite some time to get the tank stabilized around the parameters I like. What is weird is that while 95% of the corals are very happy at these parameters, I did lose a couple corals and another couple are angry (very slow growth). I would say around summer time again I will have a tank chaulk full of coral.


*** I will start adding some additional fish starting in November and maybe a couple more corals. The frag tanks are fully cycled and the main display should be ready again.

 

[benihana]

Glad to hear that you are still moving forward with everything. I think if you can take anything out of what happened it will only make everything better and sweeter in the end

 

[FargoReefer]

Awesome Tank, love the pictures! Would love to see it sometime!

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Better Pictures...

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

Here is the living ball of chaeto in my sump...I don't prune it, but more less keep ripping it apart about every other week.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

And lastly, I just noticed this coral I had written off for dead...It has grown from literally one polyp to this in about 3 months.

 

[jnarowe]

That is one wicked mosaic! :thumbsup:

Be careful about the chaeto. It acts as a floss and will trap a lot of crap. This in turn could actually be doing more harm than good.

 

[Reefaquariumnut]

I see your point...but i do shake it up and then vaccum the sump out once every 2-3 months...Crap, thats this month.

 

[jnarowe]

Well, think about NOT shaking it up. Since it has done a job (removing detritus from the water column), maybe just clip out chunks with a scissors. That's what I did, and you may find quite a few mysid shrimp within as well. I always tried to return the shrimp to the fuge, but remove chaeto and the detritus. PITA I know, but it's that attention to detail that gets the job done! And you thought this hobby would be easy?? :lol:

 

[Bax]

Great pics!

 

[Oldude]

Very cool set up. Love the fish roonm.